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Re:New autonomous farm wants to produce food without human w... by oh_sigh on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @02:08PM (#18132975)
Awesome work! I'm experimenting with a custom built, mostly-computer-controlled aeroponic myself, but it is way more on the hobby scale than this work you are doing.

One question - do you have any kind of automatic way to clear clogs in the sprayer heads?

Re:New autonomous farm wants to produce food without human w... by Brajeshwar on Thursday October 04, 2018 @11:33PM (#18145543)
As replied earlier, we tested and realized we can do much better by dripping it from top instead of the mist. We will also be doing flood-n-flush kinda method in the much bigger setup. Cleaning was one thing we learned the hard way and so the reason for our modified method.

We will still be using mist spray method with other crops that has less dense rooting, etc.

Re:New autonomous farm wants to produce food without human w... by organicaf on Thursday October 04, 2018 @08:54AM (#18139419)
You could... detect pressure build up -> assume clogged

set pressure 0

open a solenoid connected to h2o2 with enough elevation to reach the clog

detect flow increase ->assume unclogged

close solenoid, set pressure 50 psi (or whatever)

This might best be done with a hydraulic circuit rather than electronic sensors, by the way. Ie. to detect pressure build up have a secondary line with slight resistance before the nozzle that when pressurized triggers other hydraulic elements which cut pressure, etc.